How a Jersey City bike shop is giving back to underpriviledged kids

JERSEY CITY -- When Behzad Pasdar saw a family with young children walk past his Monticello Avenue bike shop last month, he wondered if the kids had their own bicycles.

After the children told him they did not own a set of wheels, he responded the best way he could: by giving the children a bike of their own.

The owner of the newly opened Bike Hub, Pasdar decided to use his business to give back to youngsters living in his community by creating The Bike Hub Children's Project.

With help from Manhattan-based Apollo Jets and price cuts from distributors, Pasdar will be receiving a shipment later this week of 41 bicycles he purchased that will be assembled and given to underprivileged kids in some of the city's toughest neighborhoods.

"We just have a different approach to interacting with the community," Pasdar said by phone this afternoon.

Growing up, Pasdar said, riding his bicycle became a place for him to forget his problems. He hopes to share that sense of happiness with children in Jersey City through his new organization.

"Some of these kids have a hard life," he said. "Who knows what's going on in their life. I know as a kid as a cyclist, being on my bike was a happy place."

The bicycles -- which are equipped with training wheels -- are set to be given to kids ages 6 and under, with hopes of the youngsters learning how to ride early in life. Every child will also receive a helmet.

Pasdar is working with New City Kids, an after-school program in Jersey City, to determine who will receive the new bikes.

Pasdar said he hopes to see the donated bicycles passed down to other kids as the bikes' owners grow out of their set of wheels.